The Scrapbook
by Fading Butterfly Wings
Summary: Some family secrets are better left untold; other times, they bring those families together in surprising ways. A story of love, redemption, and Christmas miracles. Secret Santa (like a billion years late) for Lorelei547. Hooray for Christmas in July! :D
1. Chapter 1

**Dear Lorelei547,**

**I am so so so so so so so so SOOOOO sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. I was much busier this holiday season than I expected to be and I can only hope that the length and quality of your gift will make up for its lateness. That being said, I had a TON of fun writing it! I was so happy to finally get to write about characters I'm familiar with for a change, and I especially enjoyed exploring certain characters' backstories... oops! I've said too much already ;) Anyway, I hope you had a lovely Christmas and have a wonderful New Year!**

**With love,**

**Butterfly :)**

**P.S. The second chapter will be uploaded _very very_ soon, I promise!**

* * *

Popuri could barely contain her excitement.

It was December twenty-fourth, her favorite day of the year, and she was going to spend it with her favorite person in the world (besides Mama and Rick, of course.) Saibara was finally cutting Gray some slack and letting him take the day off this year, and Mama was even allowing him to spend the night at their house instead of the inn (on the account that he slept on the couch downstairs and didn't get up once, not even to go to the bathroom.)

Popuri giggled as she threw back her chick-patterned quilt and padded barefoot across the floorboards to the snow-kissed window on the other side of her room. Clearing a spot with her fist, she was delighted to see that the entire town looked as though it had been sprinkled with powdered sugar overnight.

She was even more delighted when she saw a certain cinnamon-haired boy turn the corner onto her street. Frantically Popuri began waving like a child trying to catch her parents' attention, not even caring that her hair looked like the work of an inexperienced cotton candy maker or that her breasts were practically popping out of the loose camisole she had worn to bed.

Of course Gray pretended not to notice this until he had already turned down to path to his grandfather's shop and was just about to open the door. Popuri was on the verge of opening her window and screaming something embarrassing at him when he turned with a smirk on his face and winked at her. She grinned and theatrically blew a kiss to him, which he pretended to catch in mid-air and stuff in his pocket before disappearing inside the blacksmith's.

A feeling of giddiness swelled inside Popuri's chest. Breaking out into a Broadway-esque version of All I Want for Christmas is You, she grabbed a cardigan from her closet and flounced down the stairs to begin her morning chores…

…and stopped dead when she saw her mother lying face down in the middle of the kitchen floor.

...

Elli lifted the limp arm from the bed and gently pressed her fingers against the outline of bones protruding from Lillia's wrist. She furrowed her eyebrows and held her breath until she finally felt the faint pulse of life she was hoping for.

Breathing a soft sigh of relief, Elli cradled her cheek against the warm flesh of her mother-in-law's palm. She refused to imagine what life would be like without the gracious and compassionate woman who had so lovingly accepted her into her family when she and Rick announced their engagement two years ago. What's more, she had taken Elli's little brother Stu in without a second thought when Ellen passed away in the spring. He now slept in the room beside Popuri's and made himself useful by helping Rick maintain the farm. While the two of them still ached from the loss of their beloved grandmother, it was comforting for Elli to know that her brother couldn't be in better hands than Lillia's.

Trent appeared on the other side of the hospital bed, taking the frail woman's temperature and making notes on a clipboard as he examined her sleeping form. She tried not to show it, but Elli couldn't help tensing a little whenever the doctor was near. She knew she shouldn't feel guilty for not being able to return the affection he had clearly felt for her since she began working with him several years ago, but it still broke her heart to know that her relationship with Rick had hurt the man she looked up to.

A creaky hinge and a gust of winter air announced the arrival of someone to the clinic. Trent turned to go, but Elli placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"I'll get it," she said gently. Trent's eyes flickered for a moment, then he nodded and turned back to his patient.

Elli hurried towards the lobby, pausing to fluff out her skirt and run her fingers through her short brown bob a few times before entering.

Her husband stood anxiously by the door, fidgeting with the straps of his overalls and gnawing on his nails. As soon as he saw Elli, he ran to her and grabbed her petite hands in his large, calloused ones.

"Is she- will she be- did you give her the- was it because of the…"

Elli placed a finger over Rick's babbling lips. He shut up.

"Shh. She's fine, Rick," she whispered, reaching up her hands and tangling her fingers within his matted orange hair. It was a trick she had learned to calm him down whenever he was having one of his freak outs, and this time proved no different from the rest. "Trent's going to keep her overnight and run some tests, but he says she'll be fine to go home by tomorrow morning."

Rick's body began to relax as Elli's words sunk in. He closed his eyes and folded his arms around her neck, burying his nose in her collarbone and sighing into her skin so that her entire body was immediately riddled with goose bumps.

Elli knew most of the other Mineral Town girls thought of Rick as unattractive and awkward, but she found him endearing ways she couldn't explain. Perhaps it was because he was always so _warm_ no matter what the temperature was outside. Perhaps it was his crooked smile or the way his glasses magnified his eyes so she could see every shade of brown in them. Perhaps it was his overprotectiveness or the fact that he wasn't afraid to show his emotions like the other men she knew. Perhaps it was his smell- a mixture of sweat, dirt, and chicken feathers that clung to his skin even after he showered. (Most girls found this scent repulsive, but after spending all day in a place where the only smells were of iodine and blood samples, Elli found it absolutely enticing.)

Or perhaps it was the way their bodies fitted together as perfectly as they did now; the way he leaned into her for comfort and the way her heart responded- by fluttering to life in a place that, like the clinic, had seen so much death- perhaps it was for this reason that Elli loved Rick exactly the way he was.

...

"So… _why_ are we here again?"

Popuri huffed as she swatted at a cobweb dangling from the ceiling above her. She swore to herself that if Gray asked that question _one more time_, she would turn around, grab that stupid blue hat he always wore off his head, and smack him across the face with it. Multiple times.

She strained to keep her voice even when she spoke. "I already _explained_ it to you, sweetie pie. Mama has to stay in the hospital on Christmas Eve and I want to bring her something special to cheer her up."

_So what makes you think you'll find that special something in your _attic_? _Gray thought to himself, but he didn't dare voice the question. He had learned from experience that when his girlfriend was annoyed her ears turned bright pink at the top, almost the same shade as her hair, and they were already beginning to do just that.

He bit his lip and shoved his hands into the depths of his pockets, resolved to refrain from saying anything else that would stress her out more than she already was. Instead he attempted to make himself useful by digging through the contents of a nearby cardboard box. He wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to be looking for, but he hoped that the effort in itself would turn Popuri's ears back to their normal color.

The attic was silent for a few minutes besides the occasional scraping of cardboard and irritated grunts from Popuri. Gray was just about to ask his girlfriend if a one-eyed doll he found beneath a pile of baby clothes had any sentimental value when he heard it.

_Sniff, sniff._

Oh, _no_. Gray hated that sound, hated it more than anything else in the world. He would have preferred being alone in a room with his screaming grandfather than being alone in a room with a crying girl. Emotional women just weren't his… _thing, _if that's what you even called it. Gray could turn a dull chunk of ore into a sparkling gem overnight, but he had no idea how to make a sobbing female smile.

Popuri hid her face and attempted to wipe away her tears before Gray could see them, but they continued to spill hot and fast over her pudgy cheeks. She always cried when she was frustrated, and the fact that she was crying in front of her boyfriend made her feel even _more_ frustrated than she already was.

"Poppy? Hey, uh, Poppy," Gray said as he hesitantly began to approach her trembling frame. As much as he disliked using nicknames for people, dire circumstances sometimes called for desperate measures. "Poppy, it's, uh… it's gonna be okay. I promise."

It wasn't until his foot hit a box of Christmas ornaments and he nearly fell flat on his face that Popuri finally hiccupped with a giggle. He was just starting to hope that he might be able to save the situation after all when his arm brushed against a stack of books the height of a small child. They seemed to fall in slow motion, each one hitting the floor with a bang that echoed throughout the rafters.

"Shoot! I'm so, so sorry Popuri," Gray yelped, pulling his cap down over his face as it glowed red with embarrassment. He tried to bend over to begin cleaning up the mess he had made, only to find that his girlfriend had latched herself onto his waist and was crying even harder than before.

_What the heck? _"Oh my Goddess Popuri, I'm sorry! I'll pick all this up, I swear! Just… just stop crying, for Goddess' sake!" Gray's voice rose to a note of desperation. _"Please_!_"_

Popuri shook her head and detached herself from his waist, her mouth stretched into a smile that shimmered like Christmas lights. "I'm not crying, you dummy! I'm _laughing_!"

Dumb-founded, Gray asked the only logical question he could think of. "Uh… are you on your period?"

She giggled and swatted his arm playfully. "_No,_ I'm not on my period, thank you very much!"

She then bent over and picked up a rather beaten-looking book from the pile of at her feet. It was a faded red color and had _Christmas '88 _written across the felt cover in Lillia's distinct cursive. Beneath the words was a picture of Lillia and Rod in their late teens, holding hands and grinning at the camera with Santa hats atop their heads.

Popuri held it out to her boyfriend with a beam, as though she was showing him a priceless piece of treasure rather than a dirty old scrapbook. "I'm laughing because you found the perfect thing to cheer Mama up, and you didn't even try! You were just being your regular bumbling idiot self!"

Gray opened his mouth to protest against the insult and instead felt a soft pair of lips press against his. Popuri's eyes sparkled mischievously as she nibbled on his bottom lip, her arms entwined around his neck and her body plastered to his. He found himself wanting so badly to make this moment last forever, and yet craving more at the same time.

Popuri was a rainbow of color in Gray's black-and-white world. She was a glittering ruby amidst a pile of coal. She was sweet buttercream frosting and lollipop swirls and steaming hot chocolate on a frigid winter's day. Before meeting her, Gray hadn't thought that anyone could melt the jagged ice that had surrounded his cold heart for so long… and then she had come along and done the impossible with a single wink in his direction.

She had warmed him from the inside out.

And although Gray had never been good with words, he knew the right time had come for him to say the three that were on his lips now.

"Uh… Popuri?"

"What?" She let go and stepped back, a look of innocent confusion in her scarlet eyes. _Did I do something wrong?_ they seemed to ask.

Gray shook his head and took her hands in his before uttering the phrase she had been waiting to hear for almost a year.

"…I love you."

...

Rick hadn't seen his sister this happy in a long time. Sure, Popuri had always had a naturally cheerful disposition, but something about the look in her eyes told him her joy had less to do with her personality and more to do with the man standing beside her.

Just a brother's instinct.

"Mama! I have something to tell you," Popuri gushed, grabbing her mother's frail hand and waiting patiently for her eyes to flutter open.

Lillia smiled serenely and reached her other hand up to tuck a carefree strand of her daughter's hair behind her ear. "Yes, dear?" she replied hoarsely. Although still weak from her collapse, Lillia could feel the strength slowly returning to her bones.

"Gray _loves_ me! He loves me, Mama! He said so himself!" Popuri squealed, and in an uncharacteristic display of affection her boyfriend grabbed her in his arms and twirled her above his head like a ballerina.

Gray's face immediately turned crimson after setting her daughter down, and Lillia couldn't help but chuckle at the poor boy's shyness. It reminded her of a certain man whom she herself had been fond of in her younger days, a man who had been her Romeo of sorts. Of course she had never told her children about this forbidden affair of hers, afraid it would upset the already fragile sense of stability in their home.

But when her daughter thrust an ancient scrapbook into her arms that Lillia had stowed away in the attic in the hopes that it would never see living daylight again, she decided that it was time for the truth to come out.

"Rick, Popuri? There's, ah… there's something I need to tell you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Lorelei547- I know it's been way too long, but I'm happy with the way this turned out and I hope you are too. **

**Merry Christmas... seven months later.**

**:)**

**-Butterfly**

* * *

Lillia could barely contain her excitement. She skipped along the cobblestone path toward Doug's Inn, her skirts billowing behind her and her breath condensing in puffy clouds before her. It was December twenty-fourth, her absolute favorite day of the year (besides the Poultry Festival of course), and what made it even better was that she was spending it with her absolute favorite person in the world.

She burst through the doors of the inn, startling the middle-aged maid who worked there on weekends and was rumored to have a secret relationship with the innkeeper.

"Whoa there, missy!" Ellen scolded her, but her eyes twinkled as she placed the hand clutching a broom on her hip in mock annoyance. "Where do you think _you're _going in such a hurry?"

"Oh, Ellen!" Lillia exclaimed, clasping the woman's hands in her own. "Have you seen Rod? We're going to cut down a Christmas tree from the forest today and decorate it and make cookies together and go ice skating and possibly go swimming in the hot springs afterward an-"

"The hot springs?" Ellen clucked her tongue. "And exactly what kind of _swimming_ will you two be doing in there?"

Lillia ignored the suggestive question. "Oh, it'll be just grand!" she exclaimed dramatically, letting go of the maid's hands and spinning around the room like a top gone wild.

It wasn't until after upsetting a small bucket of mopwater and receiving a sharp reprimand from the grumpy minder Saibara that the girl finally stopped, panting and dizzy with glee. Ellen shook her head and continued with her sweeping.

Just then, a mousy, bespectacled boy appeared at the bottom of the steps leading to the bedrooms upstairs. Lillia ran to greet him, nearly knocking him over with her enthusiasm.

"Hello, Jeff! How are you today? Is Rod up there? Is he ready to go?" she inquired the small boy breathlessly, pushing her bangs back from her face as she awaited his reply.

Jeff peered up at Lillia through his glasses, a bewildered look on his pale face. "Uh… I… er…"

"Well, can you _please_ tell him to hurry up then?" she demanded impatiently. "We have a lot to do today and we need to go before it gets dark so we have enough light to pick out the perfect tree!"

She thrust her arms out and began twirling again, lost in her fantasy of sugar cookies and pine needles and ice skates and and hot springs…

…only to be stopped by Jeff's bony hand clamping around her wrist.

Lillia turned to give the boy holding her arm a questioning look. He took a deep, shaky breath before speaking.

"Lillia, i-it's Rod… he, uh… he told me to give something to you this morning. Er, not this morning, as in he g-_gave_ it to me this morning, but, uh, this morning, as in…" Jeff fumbled with something behind his back, his stutter worsening with every word he spoke. "…he, er, he told me that he, uh, wanted me to give, um, th-this letter to you this morning, right before he, uh… left the inn… last night…"

"_Left?!" _Lillia cried, a shocked expression on her porcelain features. She snatched the piece of paper the terrified boy was holding out to her and began to read the message scrawled upon it.

Jeff shrunk back towards the staircase, rubbing the place where Lillia's long nails had grazed his knuckles and watching nervously for her reaction.

Lillia's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open when she reached the end. The paper slipped through her fingers and landed on the floor by her feet.

"Uh… I, er, just remembered something I have to do. Bye, Lillia!" Jeff cried, and he retreated upstairs before the blizzard struck.

* * *

"So he's GONE?!"

Joanna's mouth was agape as she took in the contents of Rod's letter, her best friend a puddle of tears beside her. She had planned on having dinner at the inn with Doug Jr. to celebrate Christmas Eve and their six-monthaversary together, but Lillia's frantic phone call and her barely intelligible explanation of the situation between fits of sobbing had immediately taken priority over the date.

Joanna wrapped her arm around Lillia's shaking shoulders and scanned the words on the paper one more time to make sure she hadn't missed anything. Although she was known as the more level-headed and reasonable one between the two of them, even she couldn't suppress the feelings of rage that were bubbling up inside of her as she reread it.

_Dear Lillia,_

_I'm so sorry. I know this must really hurt you. Please know that I still love you and always will; I just needed to get away from Mineral Town for a while. Try not to be too sad- it's your favorite day of the year, after all._

_Love you babe. Miss you._

_-Rod_

_P.S. Please don't show this to Joanna. She'll kill me._

"Damn right I will!" Joanna growled, crumpling the note in her fist and seething as Lillia wailed into a pillow beside her. "I cannot believe the _nerve_ of that boy! If he ever shows his face around this town again, I'll kick his happy place so hard his mother will…"

"'Ever shows his face again?'" Lillia cried, her tear-streaked face finally emerging from the cushion. "Y-you mean… he might not come _back?!_"

_Crap._ "No, no, that's not what I meant. Forget I said that, okay? Rod'll be back. I promise." Joanna crossed her fingers behind her back and patted Lillia's pink head comfortingly. Her best friend snuffled a few more times and wiped her nose on the pillow, forcing Johanna to swallow back a gag and paste a smile on her face.

"There, there, it's alright. I'm sure your boyfriend's just stressed out with all the holiday craziness and needed some alone time. Guys can be weird like that. I bet you he'll even be back by tomorrow morning."

Lillia looked at her best friend hopefully and hiccupped. "You… you really think so, Jo?"

Joanna crossed her fingers even tighter. "I _know_ so. So…" She leaned close to Lillia and grinned, her dark eyes gleaming naughtily. "What do you say you and I go over to Doug's place and cheer up with a couple of drinks?"

* * *

Lillia sighed as she twirled half-heartedly on the bar stool, her plump face resting in her hands. As much as she had tried to cheer herself up by stuffing her face with gingerbread men and even singing Christmas karaoke with a drunk Ellen, she just couldn't seem to get Rod off her mind. She had been so excited to spend this night with him, and it was all she could do to keep from crying into her eggnog.

Joanna wasn't much help, either. After the first two glasses of wine her best friend was gone, sprawled across Doug Jr.'s lap and laughing at every other thing he said even though Lillia knew for a fact that she couldn't stand his sense of humor. Really the only thing the boy had going for him were his looks (whoever said redheads couldn't be cute had obviously never met Doug Jr.), and the fact that he was going to inherit the inn and all of his father Doug Sr.'s money once he passed away.

"Just because I've never been in the mines doesn't mean I can't dig for gold," Joanna would sometimes say with a wink. Though she always added a 'just kidding' afterwards, Lillia couldn't help but question her friend's intentions sometimes. She didn't seem too serious about finding a job and making money for herself, hence the reason she had been kicked out of her father's home and now lived in the attic of Lillia's.

As much as Lillia loved her, she couldn't help but worry about Joanna's future. Though she was a loyal friend and lots of fun to be around, Johanna was a bit lacking when it came to things like responsibility and discipline.

_Especially,_ Lillia noted as Jo and Doug Jr. began making out on the bar stool beside her, _especially when she was drunk._

* * *

It was a quarter 'til midnight. Lillia had just been about to drag Joanna's unconscious body home when he appeared in the seat beside hers, seemingly out of thin air.

"Hey," Zack said, the dimple in his right cheek showing like it always did when he smiled.

Lillia sniffled and quickly brushed away the tears that had been streaming steadily down her face for the last hour. After watching other couples share hot chocolate and cuddle beneath mistletoe all night, she had finally given up on trying not to think about Rod's absence. It had eaten a hole through her heart, leaving her feeling empty and hollow inside.

"Hi, Zack," she said with a pitiful attempt at cheerfulness.

Zack frowned and nudged her leg. "What's wrong, sweetheart? Why so blue?"

Despite her mood, Lillia couldn't help but raise her eyebrows as she looked at Zack. Though it was no secret around town that he had a massive crush on her since the third grade, the timid boy usually didn't even have the nerve to say hello to her in person. She wondered when he had suddenly become so bold.

And then she saw the empty bottle of wine in his hand.

"Oh, I get it," Lillia said, chuckling darkly. "You're one of _those_ drunks."

Zack put his head in his hands and tilted his head to the side, his expression like that of a dopey basset hound. "What ever do you mean, pumpkin?"

Lillia laughed out loud at this. She had to admit Zack was handsome in his own way, and she found the whole petname thing kind of endearing, if not a little lame. In fact, when she was younger she had even had somewhat of a crush back on him, but once Rod showed interest in her the poor boy had no chance.

_Rod._ Her expression darkened again, and she heaved a dramatic sigh. What was the use in being here again? This whole night had been lousy. She might as well just go home and go to bed; the sooner this day ended, the better.

She had started to climb down from the chair when Zack suddenly caught hold of her wrist. "Wait," he said, and his expression was so mournful that Lillia wondered if she wasn't the only one having a miserable Christmas Eve. "Won't you stay and have a drink with me, honeybunch? Just one."

Lillia sighed again, then glanced down to see Joanna passed out on the floor beside Doug Jr.

She turned back to Zack and grinned. "Oh, why not? One drink can't hurt anything, right?"

Even the star that lit up the sky the night Jesus was born couldn't have shined as brightly as Zack's smile.

* * *

Lillia couldn't remember how she had ended up in the beach shack on Christmas morning. She couldn't remember where Rod was or why she wasn't with him. She couldn't even remember the name of the tan, muscular boy who was sound asleep beside her. In fact, as she laid in bed and put the pieces of last night's puzzle together, there was only thing Lillia knew for sure.

She wasn't getting any presents from Santa Claus this year.

* * *

The pregnancy test was positive.

Lillia covered her face with her hands and burst into tears. Joanna stood beside her, rubbing her back and looking bewildered as Lillia told her through loud sobs what had happened that night.

"Geez, Lil," she finally said, scratching the back of her head. "I always thought _I_ would be the one to get knocked up first out of the two of us."

Lillia cried even harder as she began to speak. "I didn't _mean_ to, Jo! I can't even remember how we got back to his place. All I know is that one second we were sitting at the bar drinking, and talking, and laughing, and then we started kissing, and I knew we should stop but I didn't _want_ to and I just missed Rod so much but I was mad at him too and…and…"

Joanna waited through another round of uncontrollable sobbing before her friend continued.

"And then I woke up the next morning and I was naked and he was naked and I was just so embarrassed that I left without saying goodbye and I don't even know if he freaking remembers _anything _and…and goddess, Jo, I'm such a slut!"

Despite the very unfunny situation, Joanna couldn't help but laugh at this. "Trust me when I say that you are so _not_ a slut, Lillia. Don't be so hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes."

"Yes, but does everyone sleep with a guy they barely talk to after getting drunk on Christmas Eve and then get pregnant because of it?!"

To this Joanna had no answer.

* * *

Surprisingly, the hardest part of everything wasn't when Lillia told Zack or even Rod about the belated Christmas present that was due in ninth months. Sure, neither of them took the news particularly well, but both men blamed themselves moreso than Lillia for what had happened that night- Zack for being too drunk to realize what was going on, Rod for not being there to prevent it from happening.

No, the hardest part was when the time came for Lillia to give her precious first child up for adoption.

As much as she wanted to keep him, Lillia knew that it wasn't realistic: mostly for financial reasons, but also due to the fact that somehow her and Rod's relationship had survived all of this, and raising a child together who wasn't technically his would make things awkward to say the least.

So it was with tears in her eyes that Lillia smiled for the only picture that was ever taken of her and her baby boy before handing him off to his new family, a middle-aged couple that lived thousands of miles away in the United States of America. She was told by the kind social worker who helped her through the entire process that the adoption agency had strongly advised that no contact be made between her and her child until he was at least eighteen, old enough to decide for himself if he wanted to have a relationship with his biological parents.

Though this had been difficult for Lillia to accept, she, Rod, and Zack had all talked it over and decided this would be best.

The only thing that got Lillia through this emotional time was having Joanna there through it all. It was Joanna who cracked jokes about serious things and hugged her whenever she got too sad. It was Joanna who spent countless nights sitting beside Lillia, her head on the pink-haired girl's shoulder as she wailed about all the things she was missing- her baby's first words, his first steps, his first day of school, his first girlfriend. It was Joanna who waited patiently with Lillia through Rod's frequent disappearances, reassuring her that "Everything's gonna be okay Lil, everything's gonna be okay."

It was Joanna who put together the _Christmas_ _'88_ scrapbook chronicling that winter's exciting events, starting with pictures of Rod and Lillia's ski trip in early December. Though Rod, Lillia's family and even Zack starred in a few, most of the pictures in it were of Joanna and Lillia. Making snow angels while wearing bikinis. Sledding down the hill in Lillia's backyard. Laughing at something that had apparently been hilarious after consuming one too many bottles of wine at Doug's. Smiling with hot cocoa mustaches on their upper lips. And one, which was Lillia's very favorite, of the two of them hugging, their backs turned to the camera, as they watched the boat carrying Lillia's child fade into the horizon.

In the months after Joanna left Mineral Town after dropping off her daughter on Barley's doorstep, Lillia slept with the scrapbook beside her bed. Sometimes when she had trouble sleeping at night or just felt lonely when Rod was gone, she would pick it up and flip to the very last page, which was the picture of her and her baby with a handwritten note beneath it.

_You would've been a great mother, Lil. I'm so proud of you. Love you._

_-Jo_

* * *

The room was quiet except for the occasional beep of the heart monitor and the faint sound of Christmas carols playing over the intercom. No one dared to move or breathe. No one dared to speak. No one dared to shatter the silence.

And then Popuri began to cry.

Rick leaped up and began pacing back and forth in the tiny space between Lillia's bed and the curtain, muttering unintelligibly beneath his breath. Elli wrung her hands and attempted to calm her fuming husband. Gray was too shocked to do anything but sit and stare at the scrapbook that lay open on Lillia's lap, mentally cursing himself for (literally) stumbling upon the "perfect present." And Lillia's soft, pleading voice could be heard as she desperately tried to make things right again.

"Rick, Popuri, _please_, you must understand that I was only seventeen at the time! I was young and naïve and drunk, and my actions were driven by a broken heart. I never meant to sleep with Zack that night and betray your father in such a way, it's just… I… I…" Her eyes filled with tears. "Please forgive me, children. I know it was wrong of me to keep this from you, but I can't bear for you to be angry with me."

She reached a frail, shaking hand towards her son. "Rick," she implored him, her thin voice rising in desperation. "We were going to tell you about this soon, we truly were, but with Christmas and everything it just got…"

"Who's _we?_ You and Zack?" Rick demanded, then turned on his heel and stormed from the room. Flustered, Elli followed behind him.

Popuri, on the other hand, had ceased weeping and was now flipping through the pages of the scrapbook with a strange look on her face. She froze when she reached a picture of her mother cradling a brown-haired, blue-eyed baby boy in her arms.

Lillia held her breath as Popuri studied the child's face for what seemed like hours. Gray watched the corners of her mouth turn up in a smile as she traced her finger around and around the baby's tiny figure, trying to guess what was going through her innocent mind.

Finally, she turned to her mother with sparkling eyes and a mischievous grin.

"Well, he was _much_ cuter than Rick."

* * *

It was a crisp night in Mineral Town, so cold you could feel the winter air seeping through your skin and settling in your bones. Everywhere Rick looked lights were shining from rooftops, creating a warm and friendly glow about the town despite the dropping temperatures. There was even a family of snowmen in the yard next door.

Rick wanted to tear every single one of the lights down and decapitate the snowmen.

He just couldn't bring himself to believe it. His mother, the purest and most goddessly woman he knew, had cheated on his father. Before they were even married. She had had a son before him. With Zack. The man who had lusted after her since before the beginning of time.

_And she had never told them. Any of them._

Rick shook his head. His mother's confession had evoked so many conflicting emotions within him, he didn't even know what he was feeling right now. Part of him was angry at her for harboring her secret for so long, part of him was guilty for being angry with a woman who was lying in a hospital bed on Christmas Eve, and part of him, the piece of his heart that had gone with his father when he left to find a cure for Lillia… well, that part just felt betrayed. Like _he_ was the one Lillia had cheated on with Zack.

_Zack._

Suddenly Rick was flying down the snow-covered cobblestones in the direction of the beach, his brown eyes ablaze with refueled anger. Surely it had been Zack's fault all along. He had probably taken advantage of Lillia in her drunken, depressed state and coaxed her into bed with him. Perhaps he had even slipped something into her drink at the inn. Who knew what that lonely, lovesick man was capable in his teenage days? He would storm into the tiny shack he called a house right now and give that bastard a piece of his mind.

And then a tiny pair of arms wrapped themselves around his waist, and Rick found himself struggling to break free of his wife's fierce grip. Elli may have been small in stature, but she had given Stu enough shots to develop the strength needed to hold Rick back, or at least slow him down enough to try to talk some sense into him.

"Rick, please don't do this. You don't need to cause any more trouble for yourself or your family." Elli dug her heels into the snow, earning a grunt of frustration from her husband. "Hasn't Lillia suffered enough?"

"Let _go_, Elli," Rick snarled, attempting to pry her arms from around him. _Man,_ he needed to start lifting weights again.

She hung on even tighter. "Listen to me Rick. Pause for just one second, okay? I know what you're going through, I really do…"

"_How?" _Rick exploded, whirling around and nearly sending his wife into a nearby snowbank. "How on earth could you _possibly_ know how I'm feeling right now, Elli? Do tell, because I'm dying to know!"

He glared down at her, his chest heaving and his bangs plastered to his forehead in sweaty clumps despite the fact that the first snowflakes of the night were beginning to fall. Elli stared straight back up at him, her lips quivering and her eyes glassy with unshed tears.

"I know, Rick," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I know because my father cheated on my mother when I was ten years old. On Christmas Eve."

Rick froze. Elli's face was hard to see through the fog that had begun to cloud his glasses, so he took them off and listened as his wife shared a piece of her past she had kept hidden from everyone but herself until now.

She took a sharp breath before continuing. "My dad was on an 'extended vacation,' or at least that's what Mum told me. I was snooping around their room looking for presents when I stumbled upon the letters he wrote to her before he left." She closed her eyes, the memory as vivid as though it had happened yesterday. "I was so angry at him and my mother for trying to keep it a secret from me. I refused to speak with Mum for a week, and when Dad came home and tried to make amends with both of us, I told him I hated him and hoped something bad happened to him."

The last part was the hardest to tell. It took Elli several minutes of repressed sobbing before she was finally able to choke the words out. "I…I found the letter he wrote to me the night of the car accident. It was three months after he came home, and I had only said 'I love you' to him once, sarcastically, when he tried to apologize to Stu and I again."

She took a deep, shuddering breath, the painful truth dangling in the air like icicles before her. She had never admitted this part to anyone, not Ellen or Stu or even herself.

Rick was slowly closing the distance between them, but Elli hardly noticed. She was too wrapped up in the memories, too burdened by the consequences of her bitterness. "Mum dropped us off at Grandma's a week later and drove away without saying goodbye. Except for Christmas and birthday cards, I haven't talked to her since. I still have the letter from my dad. It's all about how sorry it is and how much he wishes he could take back what he did and make it up to us, and the very last thing he wrote is 'I'll always love you Elliphant… merry belated Christmas.'"

And then she was on her knees, her face buried in her hands and her body wracked with the sobs she had held in for the past ten years.

"And that's why you have to forgive your mom," she gasped as Rick enveloped her in his arms, stroking her hair and gently shushing her as he rocked her trembling frame. "Because you don't want to miss your chance while she's still here."

They stayed that way until the snow stopped falling; two hurting people tied together by broken families and regret-filled pasts. It was the saddest and the strongest of bonds, and Rick knew as Elli buried her face into his chest that he wouldn't have it any other way.

"Are you ready to go back?" he finally said, pulling his wife to her feet and wiping frozen tears from her cheeks.

Elli nodded, then frowned as though suddenly remembering something important. "Yes, but before we go I have something to tell you."

And then she whispered something in his ear that made every other emotion but pure joy fade away.

* * *

It was a quarter 'til midnight when Rick and Elli finally returned, covered from head to toe with snow and smiling giddily at the secret _they_ now harbored. Popuri and Gray were snuggled together on the couch in the lobby, Gray absent-mindedly flipping through Lillia's scrapbook and pausing to let Popuri squeal with laughter at someone's outfit and occasionally pecking her on the cheek.

After teasing his sister and her boyfriend good-naturedly, Rick immediately went to his mother's bedside to apologize to her and to tell her his good news. Upon hearing it, Lillia practically leaped from her bed with excitement, causing Doctor Trent to rush into the room in a panic and spend several minutes trying to convince her to lie back down.

This of course caused Gray and Popuri to come running to see what all the commotion was about, and Elli's pregnancy became public knowledge just as the clock struck midnight. A general uproar ensued, the chaos only heightening when Zack entered the clinic with a freshly cut pine tree hoisted over his shoulder and a crockpot cradled in the crook of his arm.

Although there was inevitable tension among those gathered upon his arrival, it dissipated as quickly as the steam rising from the cups of hot chocolate he distributed. Even serious Trent seemed to loosen up and was chuckling merrily along with the rest of them as they listened to Zack's hilarious stories about his Christmas Eve spent with Won.

The rest of that fateful Christmas Eve consisted of decorating the tree with a random assortment of objects found within the clinic, tossing out potential names and feeling for the child dancing excitedly inside of Elli, and, of course, passing around the scrapbook that had changed the lives of those gathered together that night.

And Lillia treasured all these things in her heart.

* * *

Jack gazed out across the midnight blue waters to the lights twinkling in the distance. He had received a letter several weeks ago from his biological mother for the first time ever, asking him to travel to an obscure town nestled on Mineral Island in order to finally meet the family he had never known and celebrate the New Year with them.

It had taken some time and earnest persuasion of his adoptive parents before they finally gave him their blessing to take this trip. Now that he was within reach of his true roots, Jack suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Would the family accept him or reject him? Love him or hate him? Embrace him as one of their own or turn him away at the door?

Jack didn't know the answers to these questions, but as his eyes fell upon a lone star shining radiantly above the place he was headed, he felt an overwhelming sense of peace.

Somehow, Jack knew in his heart that no matter happened, he was heading towards the place that he belonged.

_The End_


End file.
